Vice President Vincent Siew (蕭萬長) said on Friday that Taiwan welcomes the development of a strategic business alliance with Japan to establish a global business network.
Siew made the remarks during a meeting at the Presidential Office with Yorihiko Kojima, president of Japan’s Mitsubishi Corp, the largest Japanese general trading company with over 200 bases of operations in approximately 80 countries worldwide.
The company’s Taiwan operation has 126 employees.
“Now is the best time for Japan to invest in Taiwan, which, with advantage of location and a more relaxed investment environment, can serve as a launch pad for Japan in seeking market expansion in Southeast Asia and China,” Siew told his guest.
Following a series of lifted restrictions, he said that Taiwan and China would have more frequent trade contact and offer a more flexible platform for negotiations on logistics and personnel exchanges.
He said that Japan had always been Taiwan’s largest source of imports and the country’s second-largest trade partner.
The reason Taiwan continues to seek closer cooperation with Japan despite decades of trade deficit, he said, was that it is hopeful of forming a bilateral strategic business alliance.
Kojima told Siew he was well aware of Taiwan’s importance in terms of business strategy and would promote bilateral or multilateral cooperation to help expand the two countries’ business market.
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